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Kinds of Blue

I think this is the last of my recent projects to be completed. Not the last to be posted, but I may have managed to clear the decks in time for November. This project was the artwork for two comics in Kinds of Blue, an anthology of 14 short (5 page) comics on the theme of depression. It was originated by friends in Sydney and is currently looking for a home, but all the art is now finished!

This view from a city street is one of my favourite images from “Nihilo” – a very powerful piece and therefore not one I would recommend reading as many times as I did while doing (and fixing and changing) the art and lettering for it. I came late to “Nihilo” and the idea for the treatment came with the script. It was to be heavily based on altered photos. In the end, I drew it all in a Vector program (a fiddly and frustrating experience, but light on computer memory and I learned a great deal). Some panels were freehand, some loosely based on supplied photo reference.

This is a preliminary rough, with texture added because the style reminded me of stencil graffiti. The final art kept the same style but smooth and untextured. I still like this piece.

The other, and first, comic in this anthology for which I drew was “Knitting Therapy” – about knitting as a means of coping with depression:

I drew this one with blue pencil, then scanned and cleaned up the line work and added colour and texture digitally. It made HUGE files. For comparison, all the artwork for “Nihilo” exists in a single 1.53MB SVG file (it was easier to make changes and colours consistent across pages that way). A single page of “Knitting Therapy”, with all its layers flattened, is a 41MB PSD file (apples and oranges, I know, but it nearly did my computer in).

I knit, and I always appreciate knitting portrayed without the overtones of only old grannies doing it. Though I do know one, my mother, who is still knitting striped socks.

The blue ones are interesting too. The way you suggest the way out of depression by the bright light of the sun beyond the buildings, and in the second image, the texture of life surrounding the black figure.